ENERGY RESOURCES KS3

Differentiated Materials

KEY WORDS

Energy being able to do work. e.g. food gives us

energy, so that we can move

Fuel - Fuel is anything that is

burned or altered to obtain energy

Fuel gauge

SOLAR POWER
Most of the Earth's energy comes from the sun
Solar power is energy from the sun
There are two main ways that we use the Sun's
energy
1. Solar Cells

2. Solar water heating

WHY USE SOLAR POWER?

Advantages
Solar energy is free - no fuel, no waste or pollution.
In sunny countries, easy to use in remote places
Good for low-power uses such as solar powered garden
lights and battery chargers
Disadvantages
Doesn't work at night.
Very expensive to build solar power stations.
Can be unreliable unless you're in a very sunny place

Solar energy is renewable because the sun is

always there

ENERGY FROM FOSSIL FUELS

Fossil fuels are coal, oil and gas

Coal

Fossil fuels were formed from

dead plants and animals over
millions of years.

fossils

oil and gas

ENERGY FROM FOSSIL FUELS

Fossil fuels have formed over millions of years.
Plants and animals died and were immediately
covered by sediment in seas or swamps.
After millions of years of pressure and heat (90 0C to
1200C), these remains turned into COAL, OIL and
NATURAL GAS.
Coal comes mainly from dead plants, like trees,
falling into swamps.
Oil and gas occur together and were formed from
both plants and animals being buried.
When we burn fossil fuels were using the suns
energy that has been stored as chemical energy
underground for millions of years.

HOW FOSSIL FUEL POWER STATIONS

Coal is crushed to a fine dust and burnt. Oil and
WORK:
gas can be burnt directly.

www.vauxhallsociety.org.uk

WHY USE FOSSIL FUELS TO MAKE

ELECTRICITY?

Advantages
Electricity can be generated fairly cheaply.
Transporting oil and gas to the power stations is easy.
Gas-fired power stations are very efficient.
A fossil-fuelled power station can be built almost anywhere.

Disadvantages
Pollution. Burning any fossil fuel produces carbon dioxide, which
contributes to the "greenhouse effect", warming the Earth.
Burning coal produces more carbon dioxide than burning oil or gas.
Mining coal can be difficult, dangerous and ugly.
Coal-fired power stations need huge amounts of fuel.

Fossil fuels are a non- renewable energy resource.

Once we've burned them all, there isn't any more and our use of
fossil fuels has nearly doubled every 20 years since 1900.
This is a particular problem for oil, because we also use it to make
plastics and many other products.

WIND POWER
Wind power also comes from the sun; winds blow
because the Sun warms our atmosphere. Warm air
tends to rise, and winds are due to other air moving
in to replace it.
The wind blows the propeller round, which
turns a generator to produce electricity
We tend to build many of these towers together, to
make a "wind farm" and produce more electricity.
The more towers, the more wind, and the larger the
propellers, the more electricity we can make

WHY USE WIND POWER?

Advantages
Wind is free.
Produces no waste or greenhouse gases.
The land beneath can usually still be used for farming.
Wind farms can be tourist attractions.
A good method of supplying energy to remote areas
Disadvantages
The wind is not always predictable - some days have no wind.
Suitable areas for wind farms are often near the coast, where
land is expensive.
Some people feel that covering the landscape with these towers
is ugly
Can kill birds.
Can affect television reception if you live nearby.
Can be noisy.

Wind power is renewable. Winds will keep on blowing.

HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

Hydro-electric power is generated from falling water. Nowadays

there are many hydro-electric power stations, providing around 20%
of the world's electricity.

How it works:

A dam is built to trap water, usually in a river valley.

Water is allowed to flow through tunnels in the dam, to turn turbines

and thus drive generators to produce electricity.

(http://www.wvic.com/hydro-works.htm)

WHY USE HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER?

Hydro-electric power is renewable.

The Sun provides the water by evaporation from the sea, and will continue to do it.

DISADVANTAGES

NUCLEAR POWER - ENERGY FROM

SPLITTING URANIUM ATOMS
Nuclear power is generated using Uranium, which
is a metal mined in various parts of the world.
Nuclear power produces around 11% of the world's
energy needs, and produces huge amounts of
energy from small amounts of fuel, without
pollution.

electronicsdesigninfo.blogspot.com

ADVANTAGES OF USING NUCLEAR

POWER

DISADVANTAGES

TIDAL POWER - ENERGY FROM THE

SEA
How it works: Tidal Barrages
These work rather like a hydro-electric scheme
A huge dam (called a "barrage") is built across a river
estuary. When the tide goes in and out, the water flows
through tunnels in the dam.
The ebb and flow of the tides can be used to turn a
turbine.

www.h2bidblog.com

ADVANTAGES OF TIDAL POWER

DISADVANTAGES OF TIDAL POWER

A barrage across an estuary is very expensive to
build, and affects a very wide area. - the
environment and birds. There are few suitable
sites for tidal barrages.
Only provides power for around 10 hours each
day, when the tide is actually moving in or out.

Tidal energy is renewable. The tides will continue to

ebb and flow, and the energy is there for free.

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IS ENERGY FROM

HEAT INSIDE THE EARTH.
How it works
Hot rocks underground heat water to produce steam.
We drill holes down to the hot region; steam comes up, is
purified and used to drive turbines, which drive generators
to make electricity.
Geothermal energy is an important resource in volcanically
active places such as Iceland and New Zealand.

http://keller.clarke.edu

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

BIOMASS - ENERGY FROM ORGANIC

Sugar cane can be used to make alcohol, which can be
MATERIALS
burned to generate power
Other solid wastes, can be burned to provide heat, or
used to make steam for a power station
We can use rubbish, animal manure, woodchips,
seaweed, corn stalks and other waste

www.animalaid.org.uk

aq48.dnraq.state.ia.us

Advantages
It makes sense to use waste materials where we can.
The fuel tends to be cheap.
Less demand on the Earth's resources.
Disadvantages
Collecting the waste in sufficient quantities can be
difficult.
We burn the fuel, so it makes pollution.
Some waste materials are not available all year round.
Biomass is renewable, as we're going to carry on making
waste products.
We can always plant and grow more sugar cane and
more trees, so those are renewable too.